dynaTrace software, a provider of software for application performance management (APM), has announced a new release of its third-generation continuous APM system. Designed for organizations that rely on Microsoft technologies for important applications, this version offers an enterprise-class APM system that delivers value out-of-the-box, complete coverage of the Microsoft application stack and integration with the latest Microsoft application lifecycle management tools. With this release, dynaTrace expands its PurePath continuous transaction tracing technology further into Microsoft-centric environments.

The release includes new and enhanced support for Microsoft applications such as SharePoint Server and Dynamics CRM; Microsoft infrastructure components including BizTalk Server, IIS, and SQL Server; and Microsoft application lifecycle management tools like Visual Studio 2010 and Systems Center Operations Manager.

The release also introduces dynaTrace Deployment FastPacks to enable enterprises to rapidly deploy the dynaTrace APM system and immediately capture and view detailed performance information from their existing Microsoft SharePoint Server, Dynamics CRM, BizTalk Server and .NET Framework-based applications. "The dynaTrace Deployment FastPacks are a way to give our customers something out-of-the-box that helps them to get the kind of the data that they need, the kind of visibility that they need even faster - within just an hour or so, versus a few hours," Eric Senunas, senior director of marketing and communications at dynaTrace, tells 5 Minute Briefing.

dynaTrace Deployment FastPacks include application instrumentation templates, monitoring plug-ins, prebuilt dashboards and deployment best practice guides. The prebuilt dashboards deliver information captured by the dynaTrace system in a format that is relevant, easy to interpret and actionable for the different stakeholders in the performance of an application such as IT operations teams, architects, testers, development teams and business users.

"Our dashboards are based on a very flexible framework, very drag and drop, you can see lots of different views, you can visualize the data," Senunas explains. "The key point with dynaTrace is that we are capturing every individual transaction at a very granular level, but for most of the developers, they want to see that in the aggregate." Though users want the confidence that they have access to the data at a very granular transactional level, they also know that looking at too many transactions can be overwhelming, he adds. "The dashboards enable them to very quickly digest the information they are gathering."